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Mystic or Churchian?

Don’t get me wrong. I absolutely believe we should follow Christ. You know. His Words, His Teachings, the Way He lived. He did say that He is The Way. But something that’s been bothering me for a while about modern American Christianity, is that most don’t do it. Most American Christians, that I know, I’m hopeful that it doesn’t sum up most of American Christianity, don’t follow Christ. Oh, many say we do. We use these catchy spiritual sounding phrases and the christianese language. But it has begun bothering me more that so many Christians that I know don’t actively follow Jesus. I’m not judging them. It just troubles me. I get it. He’s a hard teacher to follow. His teachings are hard to perform. But you know what bothers me more? I was surfing, reading on Yoga and the philosophy’s surrounding it, and I saw this:

“The founders of religion were selfless and sincere—great seers, sages, and spiritual leaders. But as religions grew, the teachings of the founders were lost, and only the preachings of their selfish followers remained. Because of this, the great religion of the East was reduced to the narrow faith and beliefs of Hinduism, Brahmanism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Practical Christianity also disappeared forever, and there remained only churchianity. History shows that religionists do not actually encourage one to follow in the footsteps of the founder of their religion by practicing his teachings, but, rather, they instruct their followers to worship the image or the name of the founder of the religion through priests. Many religious leaders who claim to know God are more miserable than those they attempt to lead; they suffer from trite egoism, jealousy, and selfishness. The light of truth cannot shine through such barriers. Thus, the blind are leading the blind. The philosophy of the Upanishads is not bound by a single founder or religion, however, and it is as applicable today as it was thousands of years ago, and it will be so for as long as humanity exists.”

Look closely at this and think on it. Don’t get your panties in a wad about it. This is something written by someone who is most certainly not a Christian. But. You get where this is going? I’m not the only one bothered by people who claim to follow a specific path and then don’t actually do so. This indicates a more widespread problem than just me being bothered by the folks I know not doing this. Mystics are often shunned. Myself included. My father told me to be quiet about how I’m going about being myself, practicing my faith, as a Mystic. I can’t be. I’m being myself. If this means that I need to withdraw myself at some point I will. But I don’t see that happening.

What I want to see is a true revival. Not just some charismatic feel good, or worse, feel bad and decide to change, harnessing the power of Holy Spirit in some way to keep their brand of religion going. I want to see people start truly living like Jesus. Following His teachings. BUT. I’m not gonna say that and not do it. I have dedicated myself to this path of Mysticism and will continue down it. Call me what you like, Mystic, Christian, Sage, Seer, Yogi, or any of the others out there. I am Paul. I will do these things.